Social Media

How To Make Your Users Hate You

I loathe MTV. It's not because they've gone from music television to let's-hypnotize-teens-and-turn-them-into-some-sort-of-zombie-army television (they have), and it's not because the music there sucks most of the time (it does); it's because every time I find a link to some video that resides on their site I get the following message:

COPYRIGHT RESTRICTS US FROM PLAYING THIS VIDEO OUTSIDE OF THE US.

Now, I know all you US folks aren't familiar with these sorts of messages, but can you please take a second and imagine how it is for the rest of us? You feel stupid: you're willing to spend some of your precious time and see some content, and then you're told that you can't, because you're located on the wrong spot of the globe.

If MTV was completely unavailable in my country (Croatia) and I were unfamiliar with the brand, it wouldn't be a big deal. Don't know them, don't care. But I am a user; they're very much available here (and pretty much everywhere else) on satellite TV, and I'm seeing those same videos I'm unable to see online on my telly every day (actually, I don't, cause I rarely watch television; but you get the idea).

I know why this is: copyright problems. As I stated many times before: I don't care. Solve it. Do something. I'm obviously able to see the content elsewhere (be it on YouTube or TV), so it's not impossible.

Don't do it because I tell you so, MTV. Do it because you've got millions of visitors hating you more and more each day; they're your users because they're familiar with your brand, and you're telling them to buzz off? Gee, let me guess how that one is going to end up.

It's one thing when you don't let users see the video. It's bad, but it can be worse. By chance, I've stumbled into some niche social network called Virtual Rush. I can't even open the site, as I'm greeted with the message: "Sorry! Virtual Rush is only available within the United States." They didn't even create a nice "sorry" page, it's just ugly, .85em sized, black Arial letters on white background. I can't imagine why can it be necessary to keep users from even seeing the front page of a social network, regardless of how country-specific it may be.

Let's do this once again for those companies who haven't been paying attention: the internet is global. Anyone can be your user, regardless of where they physically are. Hiding stuff from users based on their location is stupid, and it'll make your users hate you. Get it?

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